The Cold War Essay -- History, Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cold War was a worldwide conflict that went on for over 40 years. Many people today do not understand how much it cost in terms of lives and money. During the Cold War, many events helped shape today’s United State’s military, foreign relations, and policies. The Cuban Missile Crisis helped prove that the US was a strong nation. The Space Race helped technology advance and allowed man to go where we had never been before. Another well-known conflict was the Vietnam War, which started long before the US got involved. France lost the first Indochina war to the Vietminh. Soon after, Communist North Vietnam showed interest in invading Capitalist South Vietnam and the country eventually split in two. At the time, the US had political representation in South Vietnam. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the US military became activists and sent over 50,000 troops to fight (Murray, 13). Those troops endured horrors no one could imagine, including new weapon advances suc h as Agent Orange and Napalm that were used to clear forests and fight. Back in the US, many people protested the war with rallies and marches. They had a reason. The United States was not justified in entering the Vietnam conflict because it caused more damage than advances for the US. Many different people and countries were involved with the Vietnam conflict. It began during WWII, when Japan took France’s Indochina Peninsula of Southeast Asia. The communist leader Ho Chi Minh led forces called the Vietminh to fight Japan. These forces had been trained by United States advisers. After Japan’s defeat in WWII, France had set their sights on regaining control of Indochina. By that time, Ho had already declared Vietnam independent, but France refused to recognize... ...t the spreads of communism. After the USS Maddox was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson sent military personnel to fight. After all hope seemed lost and people back home gave up, President Nixon tried to end things with a cease fire. Unfortunately in the end, the US and South Vietnam lost to North Vietnam. The war proved to be pointless after all the destruction it caused. 58,214 soldiers were killed and over 1,700 are still unaccounted for (History Channel). From the very beginning of the war, there was not much hope. The North Vietnamese were already sure of victory. The very reason the US entered the war was partly because of misinformation. Had we known then that there was no second attack coming in the Gulf of Tonkin, where would we be now? Would the US be better in foreign policies? Thanks to one misread signal, we will never know.